The present invention relates generally to a multi-layered image enhancement technique.
A multitude of different techniques have been developed for processing and filtering two-dimensional images and two-dimensional video sequences. In particular, many image processing techniques have been developed to modify a relatively low resolution image to a relatively high resolution image or otherwise enhancing the existing resolution, while maintaining image clarity without the introduction of excessive artifacts.
If an image is blurred or degraded by a well-understood process, such as shot noise occurring during transmission, the image can usually be enhanced by developing a model of the source of degradation, then reconstructing the original image using the model. However, in many circumstances, a source of degradation of the image cannot be modeled and, hence, the image cannot be faithfully reconstructed. Thus, generic image enhancement is problematic since the type of noise content therein may be hard to determine or otherwise characterize.
What is desired therefore is a multi-stage non-linear enhancement technique that is suitable for a variety of different types of noise content.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention may be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.